Journeys of Solidarity with Palestine 2011 Palestine into two states one Jewish and one Arab with a special status for Jerusalem but never satisfied in relation to the establishment of a Palestinian state The Journeys of Solidarity with Palestine 2011 adopted as its motto Freedom Independence Sovereignty The Land Speaks Arabic I The Journeys began on November 12 with the screening at Algés Municipal Library of the film The Land Speaks Arabic directed by Maryse Gargour in 2007 Julio de Magalhães National Directorate of the MPPM presented the movie and moderated the debate which followed the exhibition In the end were offered mint tea and cakes This initiative had the support of the Municipality of Oeiras Living Today in Palestine On November 19 at the Sociedade Filarmónica Amizade Visconde de Alcácer in Alcacer do Sal in a joint initiative with the Parish of Santa Maria do Castelo was shown the film A Letter to Sarah Mutaz Jankot 2002 and there was a debate on the current situation in Palestine introduced by interventions from Ambassador Mufeed Shami Carlos Almeida National Directorate of the MPPM and journalist Jose Manuel Rosendo The Palestinian Cultural Tradition Also on November 19 at the Cooperativa Cultural Popular Barreirense in Barreiro there was a reading session of Palestinian tales and poetry by Natalie Nunes and Lina Soares who also sang Arabic songs with musical accompaniment by Luis Reis It was also shown a film with Palestinian folk dances The presentation was given by Júlio de Magalhães The Flavours of Palestine The usual dinner with typical dishes of Palestine took place on November 25 at the headquarters of Grupo Sportivo Adicense a joint initiative of the MPPM the Diplomatic Mission of Palestine and that association The Mozarabic Ensemble integrating Baltazar Ramos and Eduardo Molina played Arabic music Ambassador Mufeed Shami and Júlio de Magalhães

UNESCO admits Palestine as Member State PALESTINE AS A MEMBER STATE The General Conference of UNESCO voted today in favour of the admission of Palestine as a Member State of the Organization For the association to tak effect Palestine must now sign the ratification of the Constitution of UNESCO The entry of Palestine brings to 195 the number of Member States of UNESCO The vote showed 107 votes in favour of admission and 14 votes against with 52 abstentions Voted in favour of admission European countries as Austria Belgium Spain France Luxembourg and Finland almost all Arab and African countries China India Russia Brazil and South Africa Voted against inter alia the United States Canada and Germany Portugal UK and Italy joined the group of countries that abstained Admission to UNESCO of states that are not members of the United Nations requires a recommendation of the Executive Council of the Organization and an approval by a two thirds majority in the General Conference of Member States The General Conference is composed of representatives of Member States of the Organization It meets every two years with the participation of Member States and Associate Members together with observers from non Member States intergovernmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations NGOs

Prominent members of portuguese society appeal to admition of State of Palestine in UN RECOGNITION OF THE STATE OF PALESTINE AS A FULL MEMBER OF THE UNITED NATIONS Responding to an initiative of the MPPM seventy individuals representing all sectors of Portuguese society which include three Pessoa Awardees signed an appeal in which is recommended to the Portuguese government the adoption in all international forums and in particular the Security Council and UN General Assembly of a position favourable to the recognition of the Palestinian state in pre 1967 borders including East Jerusalem as a full member of the United Nations The underwriters include university professors and researchers members of European and Portuguese Parliament mayors and city councillors union leaders artists directors and actors writers and poets and other professionals The paper reviews the 64 years that have elapsed since in 1947 the UN General Assembly adopted resolution number 181 which established the principle of establishing two states until today in which only the state of Israel was formally established and accepted as a full member of the United Nations and concludes In this context the recognition of Palestine in the pre 1967 borders including East Jerusalem as a full member of the United Nations is a direct and legitimate result of the principles

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MPPM calls for end of foreign intervention in Lybia Israel does undermine the achievement of the establishment of a viable state of Palestine free and sovereign seeks to prevent the development of democratic and progressive triggered uprisings in many countries and threatens to ignite the fire of armed conflicts throughout the region Faced with protests occurred in mid February in Libya Western countries especially France the United Kingdom and the United States chose to submit to the Security Council of the United Nations a resolution No 1973 allowing a military intervention against that sovereign country Justified by invoking humanitarian reasons the military attacks on Libya have sown death and suffering among the population and destroyed services and infrastructure of the country imposing a profound setback in their level of development The military intervention in Libya was touted as a measure to protect the civilian population but this is after all its main victim The contours of the offensive underway reveal that under the stated objectives hides after all a strategy of domination and exploitation of important natural resources of that country and direct interference in the African continent and the Arab world in revolt This war following what happened elsewhere in a more or less recent past confirms that the violation of the principle of sovereignty and non interference in internal affairs of sovereign states far from resolving or soothing the conflict deepens tensions and perpetuates the conflicts In this international context the continuation of foreign military intervention in Libya brings increased dangers to peace in the Mediterranean region Added to the military intervention of Saudi Arabia in Bahrain and the continued repression of the population of that country as well as the interference and meddling in the affairs of several of the states in the region like Lebanon or Syria independent of the particular consideration on the nature each regime and the nature of political processes under way the military attacks on Libya prevents and undermines the democratic and progressive popular movements started in Tunisia and Egypt and spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa The speed with which the Western powers were quick to launch a military operation against a sovereign country when faced with the complacency if not express complicity with which the United States of America and the European powers regard the daily repression exerted on the Palestinian people show the policy of two weights and two measures that have always guided the policy of these countries In this context it is important that the movements of solidarity with the Palestinian cause strengthen the diplomatic initiative scheduled for September leading to the recognition of Palestine as a full member state of the United Nations In this context in accordance with the principles that guide its activities and in line with the provisions of Article 7 of the Portuguese Constitution the MPPM 1 Expresses its solidarity with all peoples struggling for democracy freedom independence and national sovereignty against foreign aggression and interference 2 Demands the immediate cessation of illegitimate foreign military intervention in the region

Sudents of Passos Manuel Secondary School Perform Seven Jewish Children Kershaw of the book A Land Without People To People Without Land presented at the school his workshop in which he conveyed his experience of three weeks in the West Bank where he realized how the Arab Israeli conflict affected the daily lives of Palestinians and where he developed work with Palestinian children in the field of arts and observed and lived the day to day reality who he found that sometimes was very shocking The interest aroused by that intervention led to a new invitation to MPPM to return to Passos Manuel It happened in the last 28th of January in which Carlos Almeida and Teresa Palma Fernandes of the National Directorate of MPPM conducted a meeting with students with a presentation on the rationale and historical development of the national cause of the Palestinian people This time besides the students of History of the 12th year of Professor Maria Eugenia Vaz also attended the students of Performing Arts of Professors Fernando Rebelo and João Cabral This intervention was included in the curricular activities of their respective disciplines in the discipline of History are being treated geostrategic changes political tensions and socio cultural transformations in the world today the permanence of hotbeds of tension in peripheral regions The Middle East and the Israeli Palestine while in the discipline of performance it was decided to develop a work on the play Seven Jewish Children written by Caryl Churchill a British activist for the rights of the Palestinian people For the same audience Nuno Coelho presented on February 18 his workshop The work of students in the E class of the 10th year of performing arts culminated on June 1 2011 with the presentation in the theater of the Liceu Passos Manuel of the play Seven Jewish Children Maria do Céu

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One Year Without the Voice of Jose Saramago for being Palestine by the physical loss of the voice of the most eminent of our founders José Saramago This is an evocation and a felt tribute to his memory Saramago s voice with a global reach through the art of the word the clarity of the thought and the boldness of the positions has been heard for long in favour of two of the greatest causes of humanity liberation and peace Saramago always wanted to join his lucid warm firm voice to that of other portuguese in initiatives that paved the way for MPPM Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and Peace in the Middle East and especially in defence of the life and the future of the heroic and martyr Palestinian people It was so with the petition No to Sharon s Wall 2004 with the founding document of the MPPM 2005 which condemned the imposition by force of unilateral solutions of all forms of terrorism both state terrorism and any other of all the illegitimate military occupation with the appeal against the Israeli aggression on Lebanon and the war 2006 with the motion of repudiation of 40 years of occupation of the West Bank after

63 Years of Nakba - 63 Years of Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine is time to be firmer than ever and not let ourselvesbe deceived any more Then Carlos Almeida of the National Directorate of MPPM denounced the way in which was planned and executed the ethnic cleansing of Palestine The dream of an ethnically pure Palestine lived in the heart of the Zionist project since its birth Since the mid thirties at least what was a dream was however continuously and gradually converted into a meticulously planned and executed strategy Refusing to reduce Nakba to the events of May 1948 Carlos Almeida said The Nakba is first a silent but incessant battle to redeem the past the right to the memory that is flesh and blood of all peoples of all world cultures Evoking the Nakba is to remember how all those crimes were carried out amidst almost total silence and passivity on the part of the international community Sixty three years later to evoke the Nakba is a requirement from the future because any solution to the so called Palestinian question to be dignified just and lasting must be built upon the recognition of the wounds and never on their oblivion He advances however a message of hope Sixty three years on the Nakba however there are substantial grounds for hope The great and courageous demonstrations that took place yesterday in the occupied territories Israel and in particular in the Syrian Lebanese and Egyptian borders are a sign of this But beyond the importance of this regional context the strength courage and determination involving the manifestations of this week end are inseparable from the news of the recent agreement of understanding between the different forces of the Palestinian national resistance movement This was followed by the exhibition of the short film A Letter from Sarah directed by Jan Kot Muraz where Sarah a 12 year old Palestinian girl reports her daily life her home the refugee camp where she lives the narrow alleys where she plays her makeshift toys and games at the same time giving her view on the conflict her admiration for her brother who with the other guys defends the community responding with stones at Israeli soldiers bullets Journalist José Manuel Rosendo commented on the film adding the experience of his many trips to Palestine He described the life of Palestinians under occupation the humiliation of check in points He recalled that the siege of Gaza resulted from the refusal by the international community to accept the outcome of elections that international observers had regarded as free democratic and fair He considered as a positive step the recent reconciliation agreement between various Palestinian forces and concerning the current position of Israel that does not accept Hamas as a negotiating partner for peace noted that the same argument had been used in particular against Yasser Arafat and Abu Maza to conclude that Israel has no right to decide who should head the government of Palestine Israel can only require the other party to negotiate in an open transparent and

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MPPM Welcomes Reconciliation Agreement the agreement signed on the eve puting an end to the division between Fatah the Palestinian movement that rules the West Bank and Hamas the Palestinian movement who controls Gaza Strip The MPPM welcomes this initiative which may constitute a decisive step towards the recognition by the international community of a sovereign Palestinian state independent and viable formed within the pre 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital The agreement was signed by the representatives of 13 Palestinian resistance movements in particular in addition to Fatah and Hamas Islamic Jihad the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PFLP Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine DFLP and the Palestinian People Party At the end of the ceremony of ratification took the floor the president of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and the leader of Hamas residing in Damascus Khalid Meschal Abbas said the Palestinians had turned forever the black page of the division Meschal said that the only struggle was against Israel and that the four years of disagreements with Fatah fell behind adding that the sole purpose of Hamas was the establishment of a free and sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Jerusalem as its capital without settlements without giving up an inch of land without giving up the right of return for Palestinian refugees The Protocol to the Agreement concluded on Friday April 27 also in Cairo provides for the establishment of a provisional Palestinian government composed of independents and responsible for preparing within one year the next legislative and presidential elections The ceremony which took place at the headquarters of the Egyptian secret services was attended by representatives of the United Nations the European Union and the Arab League The former U S president Jimmy Carter called for